What Would We Find Wrong in the Brain of a Serial Killer?

You do not have be enlightened to realize that there is something different about serial killers. Clearly, the horror stories from victims and police reports will soon have you believing that something has to be very different about these people for them to do what they do, and whatever that something is has to be encoded in the brain somewhere, somehow. I would like to talk through some of the psychological disorders that could be behind the possibility for serial killing, but firstly, I would like to clarify what I mean by ‘encoded in the brain.’ I simply mean that at any one moment in time our brains have developed in one particular way and that way controls the statistical likelihood of certain behaviors occurring under certain circumstances, in this case, serial killing.

Serial killer itself is not a diagnosis, but the term serial murder has been defined by the F.B.I. as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events.” This definition, as far as law enforcement is concerned, is very useful, as these behavioral traits are unique to the type of person who is likely to offend again if not apprehended. But what psychological diagnoses could account for this kind of behavior? This question is made even more important by the fact that forming an experimental group consisting solely of serial killers would be extremely difficult to establish.

The most broadly recognized mental disorder associated with serial killing is Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). This is a cluster B personality in the DSM IV and is intimately related with psychopathy. Psychopathy is not a clinical diagnosis, but it is considered a developmental disorder by neuroscientists (Blair, 2006). Many individuals with APD are not psychopathic, but a number of them, especially the ones who exhibit traits such as limited empathy and grandiosity, do demonstrate psychopathy (Hare & Babiek, 2007). Psychopathic traits such as charm, manipulation, and intimidation have been recognized by the F.B.I. as being thoroughly connected to serial murder (see here for more details), although it’s important to realize that not all psychopaths are serial killers.

A cool academic point to note about psychopathy is that we know the kinds of behaviors psychopaths reliably exhibit (such as superficial charm and a lack of empathy; for an inclusive list see Hare, 1990), we know that they typically have a low resting heart rate (Lorber, 2004), and we also know that that they are likely to have significant differences in their brain, such as reduced prefrontal gray matter (Raine et al., 2000), amygdalar abnormalities (Blair, 2003), and asymmetric hippocampi (Raine et al., 2004). One can only speculate how these brain differences could be implicated in psychopathic behavior, but it does mean that if we scanned the brain of a serial killer and measured their heart rate, these are the kind of differences we could expect to find.

Could there be any other mental condition implicated in serial killing, other than psychopathy or APD? We can only speculate, but a good place to look would be at the other cluster B personality disorders. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms where those afflicted can suddenly become very paranoid or suspicious of others (Skodol et al., 2002). BPD has also been included by Simon Baron-Cohen as a disorder that results in zero degrees of empathy, a term he uses to describe conditions where the afflicted does not seem to have any empathy for others (Baron-Cohen, 2011). BPD is often comorbid with impulsive aggression, too (Skodol et al., 2002).

So how could BPD result in serial killing? We can only speculate, but suddenly becoming very paranoid or suspicious of others, having no empathy for anyone, and perhaps being subject to impulsive aggression, means that should an individual with BPD display with all of these traits at once, there could be an assault that results in the loss of life. If there is a situational or environmental trigger for these outbursts, the killing could become serial. This would be in contrast to psychopathic serial killers, where the killing is usually pre-meditated.

The brains of those with BPD are less understood. Impulsive aggression is characteristic of most cluster B disorders, and this seems to be related to low levels of serotonin (Skodol et al., 2002); this has resulted in attempts to treat BPD with SSRIs. Scientists have found altered levels of metabolism in the anterior cingulate cortex (De la Fuente et al., 1997) and reduced matter in the prefrontal cortex (Lyoo et al., 1998) in those with BPD.

There do not seem to be any neurological studies that have found anything special about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), another cluster B disorder. But NPD is mentioned by Baron-Cohen as another disorder where the afflicted have no empathy for others. This automatically suggests prefrontal and limbic abnormalities, perhaps similar to APD and BPD, but unlike BPD, those afflicted with NPD do not suffer temporary psychotic-like symptoms. It must also be acknowledged, here, that psychopaths are very narcissistic, and so deciding on a diagnosis between APD and NPD is a very difficult task.

The last disorder I would like to mention as a candidate is schizophrenia. Schizophrenics, especially when experiencing psychotic symptoms (such as auditory and visual hallucinations), can become violent. Accounts of schizophrenia and serial murder are mixed. Castle & Hensley (2002) claim that there has never been a validated case of a schizophrenic serial killer, but Ronald Markman M.D., who served as a forensic psychiatrist, details the life of Richard Chase, who was also known as The Vampire of Sacramento (Markman & Bosco, 1989). Chase was diagnosed numerous times as a paranoid schizophrenic, before he committed a number of murders towards the end of the 1980s.

A common characteristic of schizophrenics, however, is to have jumbled and confused thoughts, which when considered in light of cold, calculated, and premeditated murders, it is harder to merit schizophrenia as a driving force behind serial murder. If our serial killer was a schizophrenic, however, we could expect to see enlarged lateral ventricles (brain tissue surrounding the ventricles has diminished), depleted myelin sheaths in the cerebral cortex, and abnormal clusters of neurons (Bear, Connors, & Paradiso, 2007).

There are other implicated disorders in violent behavior and it must be understood that it is not uncommon to have more than one of them. Schizoid and Schizotypy personality disorders are known to share similarities with schizophrenia, but again, on their own the probability of them being implicated in serial murder is low to nonexistent.

You are barking up the wrong tree here with BPD as a serial killer profile... Bpd's are more likely to kill themselves because they feel too much empathy... they are overly sensitive and comments that most people roll off hurt BPD's deeply.

BPD rage is in the moment and not capable of sustainment that a serial killer needs a BPD will lash out in the moment but won't be sustained during the days of planning...

99% of people with BPD are non violent except towards themselves where as only 96% of "normal" people are nonviolent...

I completely agree that many people with BPD are not a real danger to other people. However, the disorder is known for an inability to empathize (The Science of Evil, Simon Baron-Cohen). I would argue that a lack of empathy, under the wrong circumstances, especially if another disorder is present, could result in multiple deaths. BPD is clearly a very dynamic disorder and varies a great deal with personality and brain state and function.

There is a recent study out concluding that those with borderline pd are just as likely to demonstrate other-directed aggression as they are to demonstrate self-directed aggression, due to their traits of high impulsivity and inappropriate, extreme anger, which then impact and diminish the capacity for empathy:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3342993/

"Serial Murder:
Ansevics and Doweiko21 studied 11 serial killers through a detailed retrospective analysis. All of these subjects had experienced a significant loss around age 5, the majority had grown up in violent homes, and murder seemed to be a “working through” process and/or an attempt to adjust to internal and external demands. The authors concluded from their investigation that serial killers do not represent a subtype of antisocial personality disorder, but rather a subtype of borderline personality disorder."

and

"...empirical evidence indicates that individuals with borderline personality disorder may exhibit physical violence toward partners, physical violence toward known but nonintimate individuals, criminal behaviors that embody externalized violence (e.g., property damage), and, on very rare occasion, murderous behavior (either of family members or anonymous others through serial killing). Given this under-researched area, there are probably other types of externalized aggressive behaviors that have not been empirically revealed. However, externalized aggressive behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder clearly exist and need to be assessed in both psychiatric and primary care settings in an effort to promote safety of medical personnel and effective patient management."

There is an interesting article at "Mother Jones" that details all the serial murder incidents (and spree murders or mass murders) in the US over the last 30 years (including weapons used, and there is an article at Wikipedia breaks down the motives of serial killers into categories; both of these articles seem to be well-researched.

The theory that sounds the most plausible to me is that it takes a combination of a Cluster B personality disorder PLUS a psychotic disorder to produce either a serial murderer or mass murderer. Just one or the other isn't enough, it takes the rage, paranoia and "grudge collecting" of a Cluster B pd plus the break with reality of psychosis to provide all the factors needed to turn revenge fantasies into hideous reality.

It was based on "self reported symptoms of BPD" I don't trust any study that is based entirely on self reporting esp with BPD's !

I think you must have a PSYCHOTIC DISORDER to become a mass killer all of the recent mass shooting have suffered from Schizophrenia... whether or not they also self report BPD or not to me is irrelevant.

I think your off base on that statement. BPD is not known for a complete lack of Empathy like say a NPD or a Sociopath.

Someone with BPD can empathize most of the time, but at times (usually under stress) Empathy can become impaired to usually have a negative spin. In fact this is part of the new DSM5 diagnosis. Nowhere do they say a complete inability to empathize.

In my experience, while under stress, they assign negative motivation to others like" that person is snubbing them or doesn't like them" when "that person may have ignored them because they had to go to the bathroom" this is the negative spin the BPD feels. T

he BPD thinks something negative about themselves, rages about that, then ascribes the "snubber" as bad. They don't think that the snub could be something that has nothing to do with them. If the snubber is then kind to the BPD person, the BPD will completely forgive the snub in an almost childlike way, and now think of the snubber as "good".

They don't maintain rage over days
.
I guarantee you people with BPD do feel empathy most of the time! If your dog is lost they will feel your pain and will help you find your dog. A Sociopath or someone with NPD won't.

my daughter has BPD. She can be the most empathetic person you have met. When in times of "fear of abandonment" she will lash out verbally. You could say she does not show empathy then i.e. she isn't calmly discussing or realizing that you might night not want to be screamed at, but it really isn't a lack of empathy. Its more a lack of maturity. If you validate her and she calms down she knows she was wrong to scream and she really does feel bad. She will apologize and mean it.

To put her in a category with a serial killer or any killers lack of empathy seems just wrong to me. She isn't even like a narcissist, it is different. She does have empathy. What she doesn't have is trust.

Trust that people will treat her well. Now some say that is "paranoid and delusional thinking" but she is right. People have not treated her well (she was raped, and lost a parent young, and had to move around a lot) so she is right perhaps to expect the worst.

I just don't ever see her capable of killing. Throwing open yogurt cups at you yes, killing no..

It's nice to see someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to BPD. I laugh (and shudder) when I read certain "academics" talking about borderlines having no empathy. Most borderlines are too empathic most of the time (emotional dysregulation) and although they do lose empathy for short periods while under stress, it never lasts much more than an hour - at least in my experience. The ignorance surrounding BPD by many, even in the psychiatric community, is frightening. BPD has 9 criteria and if you meet five of them you have the disorder. There are over 250 possible combinations of symptoms that can lead to a BPD diagnosis. That's a lot of very different people who are ALL being tarred with the nonsensical label of potential serial killer.

met of heard first hand of any BPD who has experienced hallucinations or heard voices talking to them or any of those type of psychotic symptoms.
I have heard of depersonalization (where they don't recognize themselves in a mirror), or magical thinking like a house can have bad vibes and if they go inside harm will come to them, or If they eat beans they will fail a test. That kind of psychotic symptoms.
My daughter has BPD and we have been to many in patent and out patent support groups/ therapy etc
I understand your angle for the article, but my experience with people who have BPD has been much different. Princess Di was rumored to be a BPD and she (with her BPD) really doesn't fit the profile of a serial killer. Most people with BPD are like that emotionally fragile and in need of validation.

By the way they gave us those statistics at the hospital when talking about BPD rage.

The new research in BPD tends to indicate an Opioid system disfunction as the cause for many of the BPD "symptoms".

The sensitivity of opioid receptors or the availability of endogenous opioids constitute part of the underlying pathophysiology of BPD. The alarming symptoms and self-destructive behaviors of the affected patients may be explained by uncontrollable and unconscious attempts to stimulate their endogenous opioid system (EOS) and the dopaminergic reward system, regardless of the possible harmful consequences. Neurobiological findings that support this hypothesis are reviewed: Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, frequent and risky sexual contacts, and attention-seeking behavior may be explained by attempts to make use of the rewarding effects of human attachment mediated by the EOS. Anhedonia and feelings of emptiness may be an expression of reduced activity of the EOS. Patients with BPD tend to abuse substances that target mu-opioid receptors. Self-injury, food restriction, aggressive behavior, and sensation seeking may be interpreted as desperate attempts to artificially set the body to survival mode in order to mobilize the last reserves of the EOS. BPD-associated symptoms, such as substance abuse, anorexia, self-injury, depersonalization, and sexual overstimulation, can be treated successfully with opioid receptor antagonists. An understanding of the neurobiology of BPD may help in developing new treatments for patients with this severe disorder.

They tend to harm themselves to soothe themselves and increase opioids. (Harming another person does not elicit this Opioid boost).

Most BPD's that I have ever met are desperately wanting approval from others,.They are more "other approval centered" than "self approval centered" ie desperately wanting someone else to validate them rather than just validating themselves. They don't hate others inherently instead they hate themselves.

They are completely different from the Sociopathy of most serial killers even if they are "cluster B"

That is interesting and would explain a lot if the findings hold up. My perception of BPD patients are the BPD patient is usually in emotional distress.

I have found that in psychopathy there is an absence of distress. In fact the dominant understanding of psychopathy is that they basically lack emotions such as fear or distress. If you clap your hands behind someone’s back, she will startle, and you can measure how her palms get sweaty. If you do that with individuals with psychopathy, experiments have shown that their response is flattened.

Borderlines rarely maintain the emotional stability needed to flatten physiological response. The flattened response is associated with the profile of a serial killer while the "heat of the moment killer" is one in distress.

Mass shooters do not meet the criteria for serial killer. Serial killers tend to kill a low number of people, usually one, and then there is a cooling off period before their next kill. The FBI used to differentiate between serial killer and what they termed 'spree killer' as two different profiles - thus two different mindsets.

that BPD's can calmly rage for days and plan a ritualized serial killing and not be in distress where they are thinking straight enough to plan and carry out?

I just don't see where they hold a grudge for more than the time frame of the "fight". If a Bpd was to kill in my mind I could see heat of the moment type of kill. Like pushing someone and they fall and hit their head. In my experience once they "fight" is over they are almost childlike in being perfectly fine again. And their forgiveness is complete. It is very much like a 2 year old. Also when they are so upset that their empathy is compromised, They cry and scream and carry on they are not calm.? wouldn't you have to be somewhat calm to commit a serial murder?

The statistical likelihood of a person with BPD (and no other disorders) being a serial killer is so low that for practical purposes it’s almost worthwhile to treat it as 0%. It is widely acknowledged that many serial killers would meet the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), and also criteria for psychopathy. However, most people with APD are not serial killers. Even most psychopaths are not serial killers.

So, why even mention BPD as a disorder that could be present in a serial killer?

It is not uncommon for people who have a personality disorder to also meet the criteria for another personality disorder. A number of people with APD could also show traits of BPD. This increases the odds of finding BPD in killers – pathological killers, who plan out to the nth degree their murderous and violent acts.
There are times during the life experiences of people with BPD that their capacity for empathy is diminished. The extent is dependent on any number of factors, such as genes, gender, brain state, and life experience; but it is still diminished empathy. This does not automatically mean that the person with BPD will suddenly transform into a killer, it just means that during these episodes it is very hard to empathize with other people (there is a huge chasm between a lack of empathy and being a killer).

The reason I have suggested that BPD could be responsible for serial killing is as follows. When a person with BPD experiences a lack of empathy, there is a small chance, provided that motivations and intentions are present, that a violent outburst could occur and a result in a death. A small number of people with BPD also experience psychotic –like symptoms, such as hallucinations, which could malevolently influence motivation and intention. If this hypothetical person with BPD finds themselves in the same situation, in a similar environment, another assault resulting in death could arise. Once two or more people are killed, the person responsible is termed a serial killer. Although, what I have described is purely theoretical, and statistically unlikely.

I share your concern that those with BPD can be unfairly stigmatized, and it is very important to acknowledge that the number of people with BPD committing any kind of criminal act is very low. But at the same time, studying any kind of causal factor behind losing empathy is pivotal if we are to understand and reduce crime.

My Dad had BPD, and he was violent to us. I've done some reading about borderline personality disorder and Dad had all the things listed except for making suicide threats or hurting himself. Dad didn't think there was anything wrong with him, he blamed my Mom and my brother and me for making him mad all the time.

Dad did some jail time for domestic violence when my brother and I were kids; he'd scream at Mom and hit her then he'd tear into my brother and me also. We were scared of him. Dad was always accusing Mom of seeing other men and stuff, and other stuff that she didn't do. He'd tell me I'd said things I didn't say and that I was giving him a dirty look to him when I was just doing nothing. I learned (from Mom) that Dad had seen by a psychiatrist while he was in jail, and they said he had borderline personality disorder.

Mom finally left Dad, and Mom and my brother and I are having a calm life now, but I wanted to know more about BPD so I read about it more and have been studying it. Lots of psychiatrists and medical studies are being done now about BPD. Lots of books about it. I mostly liked "Surviving A Borderline Parent" and I got my brother to read it too.

I think it is mostly a mechanical disorder, like the brain wiring is bad, or the brain chemicals are bad.

I read a report about studying people who have BPD that are in prison. I will try to link it here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2790397/

it says that BPD represents a pretty high percent in domestic violence cases for both men and women. BPD people have hair-trigger tempers ("unstable" emotions) and high impulsivity (no "brakes") and they feel that others are lying to them and out to trick them or get them ("paranoia") and all that can turn into hitting. Its like they wrote this report about my Dad.

And if BPD people like my Dad also seem to not be able to care about hurting you when they get mad, that all goes together with my Dad hitting us and scaring us to death when he'd get mad. Which happened a lot.

You won't stop until you convince the world that BPD's are the most abusive people out there AND THEY ARE NOT...
Perpetuating a Stigma about a disorder does not do any good in curing it or getting people who have it the treatment they need. BPD can be treated and cured and it's symptoms wane with age according to a study out of the Mayo clinic (whose method wasn't self reporting).

You keep trying to link to that one study where the method was SELF REPORTED SYMPTOMS.
Highly suspect!!!

BPD's are NOT the biggest committers of Domestic Violence FYI. NOR IS VIOLENCE A SYMPTOM IN BPD.

Also if "your Dad" really did have BPD, which I'm sure he did not ONLY have BPD from what you have described!!

So Good luck in your efforts to link serial killing and killing in general to BPD. My money is on the Schizophrenic and Psychopathy links first as having greater number.

While most all mental illnesses can be linked to committing violence, in actuality people w mental illness are more likely to be victims of DV.DEBUNKING MYTHOLOGIES ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

That there is a clear link between mental illness and domestic violence is indisuputable. Most members of society agree that such a link exists and needs to be addressed, some with graphic tales to accompany their position. The nature of that link, though, runs contrary to popular claims. As with other generally accepted beliefs about mental health and violence, the focus on the connection between mental illness and domestic violence tends to be on the alleged tendency of mentally ill people to commit acts of violence. People are informed that mentally ill partners are dangerous, that schizophrenic or bipolar people are not safe to be in relationships with because they will be abusive. Borderline personality disorder in particular is blamed for abusive relationships and family dynamics.

***The fact of the matter is that while there is a connection between mental illness and domestic violence, it runs in the opposite direction. Mentally ill people are far more likely to be victims of domestic violence; this .pdf handout on the subject points out that women in particular are at especially high risk. In surveys of mentally ill women, very large percentages reported experiences of domestic violence and abuse, in numbers of 50% and higher in many cases. This is not an epidemic of abuse caused by expressions of mental illness, but a serious social problem and threat for people with mental illness, because the statistics in the other direction, on reports of violence committed by people with mental illness, are miniscule by comparison.

Most of the perpetrators of domestic violence are men towards women. The majority of BPD sufferers are woman. BPD is much more prevalent in the female population as opposed to male population. So it doesn't jive that it is all of the BPD's out there committing domestic violence.
If you look at the perpetrators and factors involved in of Domestic violence you see:

The factors most closely related to spouse abuse are youth of both the offender and the victim (between 18 and 30 years old), low income, growing up in a violent family, alcohol or substance abuse, unemployment, sexual difficulties, and low job satisfaction. While no single personality factor causes domestic violence, offenders committing the most serious abuse tend to have antisocial personality disorders.

I wish I could remember exactly where I read it, but maybe I can find it again and post it, but this article I found (I wanted to find out more about borderline personality disorder since my Dad has it) said that the same behavior of sudden anger and hitting people like a hair-trigger temper and not having much self-control (impulsiveness) and that "everybody is out to get me" kind of thinking (paranoia) is called "antisocial pd" in men and "borderline pd" in women, because there is some kind of "gender bias" thing going on.

So violent men are called "antisocial" and violent women are called "borderline"? But my Dad was called "borderline pd". So, I find that confusing.

And yet, there are differences too from what I read (which is also confusing) like, my Dad isn't a criminal. He doesn't rob people or do crimes, he's just really got a hair-trigger temper and he thinks other people are saying stuff about him or conning him or disrespecting him and he gets so mad he just starts wanting to hit people. He hit my little brother and he needed stitches, which is why Dad wound up in jail and Mom finally left him. So all I can figure is that maybe that is why the psychiatrist called Dad "borderline personality disorder" because he doesn't do crimes, other than getting angry enough to hit us (?)

I am reading and trying to find out what will help my Dad but if he doesn't think there is anything wrong with him, I don't know what I could do or tell him about getting help. Any ideas on this? I'm not sure how he will take it if I tell him I think he needs help, like therapy help. Its calm at home now and I feel safe but I still miss Dad. I wish he would get help for his BPD.

So anyway if I can find that thing I read about "gender bias" I'll post that link. I think its weird that the same kinds of behaving would be called different names depending on if you are a man or a woman.

But about serial killers, I read somewhere that those people have to be "cold" emotionally to make careful long-term plans to murder a bunch of people one at a time, which is I think (I hope I am remembering this right) is more like "psychopathic" thinking, but the mental illnesses that have "anger" and "impulsivity" behaviors are like mood disorders and "Cluster B" personality disorders and those people are "hot" emotionally like my Dad and do violent things suddenly without planning it.

My Dad doesn't do drugs or drink, dude. And the doctor, the psychiatrist, told my Mom it was "borderline personality disorder". But I'll ask her if that is for sure or if she heard it wrong or something. Because if its borderline personality disorder then the stuff I've read says that people don't usually get well from that, even if they do get therapy, which my Dad says he doesn't want. I read that mood disorders people do OK when they get therapy and get the right medical drugs, but the personality disorder people don't. So it makes me sad.
I hope you are right.
Thank you.

Your dad is more likely to get well from bpd than if he I has a mood disorder. Studies show that time alone can remit the symptoms of bpd and there are several effective treatments out today that will remit the symptoms even faster.

The problem is when people like yourself keep stigmatizing bpd, it makes it hard for people who have it to seek treatment. You are actually propagating the disorder and keeping people who need help from getting it by keeping the stigma alive. This doesn't do anybody any good.

There are millions of people with bpd in the world who don't beat their children. There are so many variations of bpd. Since you don't have a medical degree I think you should leave the diagnosis and criteria to people who do have psychology degrees. I know you are obsessed with cluster B if you lived in a different country they would not call these disorders cluster B nor necessarily link them. Different countries like Sweden for instance have developed effective psychoanalytic therapies.

Why keep the stigma going ...you are really not even helping the families by doing that by keeping people out of treatment. There are effective therapies for bpd.

PTSD can cause symptoms that you described as CNN reports below "he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder..Barnes was emotionally unstable, vindictive and anger-prone..The woman said she was frightened to be in the same state with him...

For you to say in reference that "the same behavior of sudden anger and hitting people like a hair-trigger temper and not having much self-control (impulsiveness) and that "everybody is out to get me" kind of thinking (paranoia) is called "antisocial pd" in men and "borderline pd" in women, because there is some kind of "gender bias" thing going on." in not an accurate picture of either ASD or BPD and sounds more like PTSD.

ASD Antisocial (Dissocial) Personality Disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. There may be an impoverished moral sense or conscience and a history of crime, legal problems, impulsive and aggressive behavior.

That is clearly different from BPD. It is not "the male form" of BPD. Please don't mislead people on this.

Bipolar people can act the same way!
I know a guy who would rage and beat his children because he didn't like them and thought they they were ruining his life!
He had no regards for what he was doing to the children at all! He was in his own world when he got like that. Yet he seemed perfectly fine most of the time to others...

and he never wanted to admit that he had a problem or needed medicine. He would stop taking meds because he didn't think anything was wrong with him.

So I've been reading some more and you are right, some different disorders have that same kind of behavior like quick to anger and hitting people and saying you did things you didn't do and stuff like that. Bi-polar and borderline and PTSD, and antisocial pd lists irritability, aggressiveness, and impulsivity (but its also about being a criminal and my Dad isn't a criminal.)

The borderline personality disorder stuff mentions anger and suicide; I hope to God my Dad doesn't do that. He hasn't done stuff like that cutting stuff but he drives when he is mad and it scares me when he does that. It felt to me like he sort of wanted to kill both of us when he did that. It scared me pretty bad.

So, I asked my Mom again and she said that the psychiatrist who talked to my Dad when he was in jail said to her that my Dad has "borderline personality disorder."

I just want my Dad to go into therapy, no matter what it is he has. If he does then we can have visitation with him, at least I think so. Its all kind of confusing and complicated.

I'm really sad and feel up against a wall because my Dad does not want to go into therapy. That hurts my feelings. I just want him to not be so mad at us and I know that we can't be a real family anymore because Mom and Dad are divorced now but I still want to see him because I love him.

You said he went to jail for hitting your mom. I doubt he will be in jail very long for that. Why actually they don't give them psychiatric evaluations for that nor diagnosis'. And people with PTSD aren't criminals either not people with bipolar. I am done with your charade.

Randi Kreger that instead of making up these false persons (Annie and now this "anon" who comment like this on every BPD blog (FYI you were caught and admitted before you deleted your blog page & comments that show it is really you)
That you spend your time actually getting a degree in psychology instead of just the degree in MARKETING that you have. Really Who trusts an expert on a psychological condition that won't even get a degree in Psychology...
Because you will see most people who have BPD aren't like your imaginary violent wife and child beating BPD.
Princess Diana had BPD- she didn't beat her children and they turned out just fine. Most BPD's are like her. With their own emotional pain and self directed harm /angst. Sure they will scream cry and throw yogurt and cut themselves or suffer from eating disorders but they are incredibly loving fun beautiful people too. They are capable of holding powerful jobs and achieving great things in life. Other mental illnesses have higher rates of violence.

"Hitting someone, really out of it, and screaming mad" could very easily be PTSD...A BPD person is more likely to be crying hysterically.

Because with no thanks to you and in spite of you They are overcoming the Stigma and creating effective treatments.

If you are talking to me? I wanted to find out how to help my Dad.
I am totally not understanding what you are talking about. My Mom said the doctor said it was borderline personality disorder. So I can go ask someone else. I just want to find out how to talk to my Dad about getting some help.
So if you don't want to talk to me, don't.

This is one of the studies concluding that borderline pd occurs as frequently in men as it does in women (the difference in the rates being under one half of 1%). However, males with borderline pd tend to "act out" more often with aggressive violence and wind up in jail or in substance-abuse treatment programs, while women with borderline pd tend to "act in" more often and wind up in psychiatric care, causing the misperception that borderline pd is overwhelmingly a "women's disorder". So, its just that typical phenotypic differences in presentation cause the bpd sufferers to wind up counted in different sets of statistics:

Studies show there are neurological differences I. The brains of people with ASD and those with ASD who are violent almost as if it is a completely different disorder ... Or at least an entirely different subset presentation.

I think there is a lot to learn about different biological presentations of what we thought was the same disorder. It may indeed be different disorders

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree and let the scientists & researchers duke it out, because the neurological studies I've found (and posted links to) show that ASPD, NPD and BPD are more alike than they are different, particularly regarding behaviors affected by the amygdala: impulsivity, difficulty controlling anger/chronic irritability which expresses as self-directed or other-directed aggressive violence.

the brains of violent psychopathy are different then ASD http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/07/us-brains-psychopaths-idUSBRE8460ZQ20120507
http://prezi.com/qxxwcrn1mz22/copy-of-psychopath-vs-sociopath

There are clear differences in men with psychopathy and those with anti-social personality disorder (ASPD)

"...Papazian undertook a literature review of over 160 serial killers during the past century and examined their psychological characteristics. She identified several characterological subtypes of serial killers: those with antisocial, schizoid, and borderline personality disorders.

Ansevics and Doweiko studied 11 serial killers through a detailed retrospective analysis. All of these subjects had experienced a significant loss at around age 5, the majority had grown up in violent homes, and murder seemed to be a "working through" process and/or an attempt to adjust to internal and external demands. The authors concluded from their investigation that serial killers do not represent a subtype of antisocial personality disorder, but rather a subtype of Borderline Personality Disorder...."

[A descriptive study of substance abuse and mental health disorders in intimate partner violence abusers in prison].
[Article in Spanish]
Chérrez-Bermejo C, Alás-Brun R.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To obtain data on substance abuse and mental disorders amongst a population of inmates imprisoned for gender violence.
DESIGN:
106 intimate partner violence offenders were recruited in our study, all of whom were prison inmates. The study is descriptive and statistical comparison of percentages was used.
RESULTS:
the percentage of substance abuse was 61.3%; most of which consisted of alcohol and cocaine. According to DSM-IV R, 25.5% of the inmates had at least one psychiatric diagnosis at the time when entering prison: 11.3% adjustment disorder with depressed mood, 6.6% personality disorders, 2.8% psychosis, 1.9% major depressive disorder, 1.9% bipolar disorder and 1.9% psycho-organic disorder were encountered. The average age of the men of the sample was forty years old. The most common nationality was Spanish. The percentage of immigrants was significant greater than the global percentage of the general population. The percentage of global substance consumption and psychopathologic problems is greater than data obtained in IPV from other populations, like samples of men charged by their partners with gender violence.
CONCLUSIONS:
depressive symptoms, personality disorders, alcohol and cocaine consumption need to be investigated as gender violence risk markers in Spain. Attention should be paid to the role of consumption prevention when entering prison.

Dear Annie (aka Randi Kreger) no matter what you do you are not going to prove that BPD = Serial Killer. There are 6 million people in the USA suffering from BPD and maybe 100 serial killers operating in the USA every year.

GIVE UP YOUR ATTEMPTS AT STIGMATIZING BPD SO PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM IT ARE NOT AFRAID TO GET HELP!! PLEASE.

I am not Randi Kreger. You can ask the staff at Psychology Today to verify that for you.

And I have as much right as you do to state my opinions here (with the consent of the
publisher and the consent of the blog owner) as long as I do so with respect and politeness, and I
have the right to link to legitimate scientific studies that support my point of view
even if it differs from yours.

If you disagree with my point of view, that’s your right. But if you continue to harass
me I will submit a request to Psychology Today to consider putting you on moderation.

Since you are knowledgable about the diagnostic traits and behaviors of borderline pd,
you must realized that delusional beliefs and paranoid ideation are one of the diagnostic
criteria? You seem to have a fixed delusional belief that I am Randi Kreger.